Dioxins Service History

The HRMS Group of SGS Environmental Services began as a separate company in 1994. Known as Paradigm Analytical, the company was niche driven to pursue environmental work in the organics laboratory arena.

In 1998, Paradigm opened the Dioxin division. While other dioxin labs certainly existed, Paradigm chose to gain a competitive edge by producing quality data and streamlining the process with automation. Automation made it possible for accurate analyses to be completed in a timely fashion.

In 2001, the tragedy of the World Trade Center attacks created an enormous need for dioxin testing. Paradigm began working directly with the Environmental Protection Agency. Emergency Response Teams gathered samples at Ground Zero, and the Paradigm team conducted the exhaustive rapid turn dioxin analyses (72hr TAT) on the samples over a 6-month period. Paradigm was called on to analyze soil, ash, air and wipe samples for dioxins and PCB homologs in the days and months following the tragedy at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. This work helped to support human risk exposure studies, and SGS was one of the primary support labs for this effort. Read more about the EPA WTC Study.

Originally, SGS Environmental Services was one of Paradigm's largest customers. In 2004, Paradigm became the Dioxin division of SGS. It was a perfect match for both companies, because they shared a mutual forward-thinking philosophy of monitoring technological advances to maintain a position on the leading edge of innovations in their field.

SGS Dioxin Group participated in the development of extraction and analysis procedures utilized in the establishment of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for PCB congeners at the Deleware River Basin Commission (DRBC). We continue to support monitoring efforts for the DRBC. Read more about the DRBC.